INDIANAPOLIS — Amid buzz of the scouting combine here and continued uncertainty over the labor situation, the NFL’s overtime rules are again suddenly a red-hot topic.

Stung by increasing criticism for letting a coin flip play such a crucial role in deciding important games, members of the league’s competition committee let it leak at the combine over the weekend that changes to the overtime format could be afoot in time for the 2010 playoffs.

An NFL spokesman later confirmed that the committee is considering what appears to be a hybrid of college football’s popular format and the league’s existing sudden-death rules.

Under the new system, overtime would still begin with a coin flip and would still be sudden death if the first team with the ball scores a touchdown. But if the first team scores only a field goal, the other team would get the ball after a kickoff with a chance to extend the game with a field goal or to win with a touchdown.

It would be the first significant change to the overtime rule since it was instituted in 1974, and many within the industry consider a change long overdue — particularly after the Saints’ 31-28 NFC Championship game win over the Vikings this past season was decided on the first possession of overtime.

The changes are by no means a sure thing and still must win at least 24 votes from the owners if brought up by the seven-member competition committee at the league’s annual meeting this month in Orlando.

In fact, one competition committee member told The Post on Sunday that he considered the chances of passing the alteration to overtime “not too good.”

But momentum is building for overtime changes, in part because of the league’s over reliance on something so random as a coin flip to determine outcomes in a multi-billion-dollar sport.

According to NFL research, just seven times in 445 overtime games has the winner of the coin flip opted to play defense. And since 2000, a whopping 60 percent of overtime games have been won by the winner of the coin flip.

The playoffs have been less lopsided, with virtually a 50-50 split of the 27 games that have gone into overtime over the past 36 years, but it’s the overall numbers that have some coaches and executives believing that changes need to be made.

At least one head coach at the combine made it clear he thinks overtime needs to be tweaked, at the very least.

“Having spent quite a while in college football, that’s kind of the dynamic way to play overtime,” Raiders coach Tom Cable said Sunday. “I think both teams getting a fair shot . . . brings more strategy into this whole thing.”

Others around the league aren’t exactly holding their breaths that changes will be made, including the players. Seahawks wideout T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who was at the competition committee’s meeting last Thursday, told reporters he doubted the owners would go for it.

But a lot can change between now and the NFL’s annual meeting, especially if the competition committee — which has several influential members, including Titans coach Jeff Fisher — is unanimous in its support of the modified overtime.

“Where they go with it and how they get there will be talked about and decided,” Cable said. “I think there needs to be something [done], so we’ll see what they’re doing.”